Going through these episodes again is an interesting exercise. I knew I liked this particular episode, but until rewatching it, I forgot how freakin' great it is. If I had to rank my All Time Top Ten Lost episodes, this just might make the cut. In many ways, it's a chamber drama, with a lot of enclosed encounters between two people, set against a gorgeously shot B story that warms the heart. In addition, many seeds from the show's mythology are planted in this bad boy. Buckle up, kids: this is a long one.

Solitary

4) In Short

"Torture...it's for everyone!"

8) On the Island

Sayid's alone on a beach, looking at the same photograph we've seen previously of a woman. On the back of this photograph is a note, written in Arabic. Glancing over from the photograph, he notices something in the sand. Uncovering the area around it, he finds it's a cable, running from the ocean into the jungle.

Back at camp, Jack is tending to Sawyer's wounds. The two exchange heated words, still fresh from the events in "Confidence Man." Kate's looking off into the distance nearby, wondering when Sayid might return. We learn it's been two days since he left, and she's mighty mad at Jack for being complicit in Sayid's torturing of Sawyer.

We catch up with Sayid, who comes across what looks to be a man-made trap as he follows the cable into the jungle. He avoids the first trap, but steps directly into the second, and is lifted into the air by a rope tangled around his ankle. Later than night, he's still trapped when he hears footsteps approaching. Someone cuts him down, but the blood flow from hanging upside so long overpowers him before he can ascertain who it is.

At camp, Jack tends to a hypochondriac named Sullivan, and yea, I'd forgotten all about this guy too. Hurley points out to Jack that everyone's tense, and suggest a big group backrub. OK, not really, but he does note the need for something to actually DO on the Island other than watch people beat each other up as a form of catharsis. Jack takes a pragmatic approach, stating that things could worse, to which Hurley gives the funniest, "No!" in the history of television.

Back to Sayid, who's now tied to an empty bed frame in a room with electric (!) light. As he comes to, the name "Alex" keeps popping up from a nearby voice. He soon sees a woman, in silhouette, who wants to know where "Alex" is. When Sayid says he doesn't know, she fries the bedframe, sending volts of electricity through his body. Sayid begs the mysterious woman to stop torturing him, recounting the path he took to arrive at this place. His mention of the 16-year old recording prompts a response in French, and we realize the woman in this room is the same woman who made the recording. She says she knows what Sayid is, and knocks him unconscious.

The following morning, Sayid sees a jacket with the name Rousseau (her last name). Sayid notes the batteries in the make-shift retreat, observing that they couldn't possibly produce the signal her heard. She confirms that it comes from somewhere else, but "they" control it now. Rousseau is convinced that Sayid belongs to the faction that controls the signal. She knows his name, thanks to the photograph and letters he carries, and asks the name of the woman in the photograph. He tells her, "Nadia."

Danielle's less skeptical of Sayid's story, but far from accepting. She wants to more about Nadia, to which Sayid replies that she's dead. She, creepily, caresses his face and tells her she's sorry. She then shows him something: a broken music box, given to her by her ex-husband, Robert. She says he was a comfort to her, those first few years on the Island. (So, um, where is he, Ms. French Woman?) When Sayid offers to fix the music box, she runs off, grabs a syringe, injects it with an unknown substance, and injects Sayid.

When he comes to, he's tied to the chair, having been moved to the table to fix the music box. The bargain to fix the box? Her first name: Danielle. As he fixes the box, she fills in her backstory, and it's a loaded one we're still unpacking years later: she claims to have been on a science team, working in the Pacific, when their ship malfunctioned during a storm. In the wake of those malfunctions, the ship ran aground on the Island, where they made what they thought was temporary camp.

For two months, they survived until, on the way back from something called the Black Rock, they encountered voices of what Rousseau called "The Others," supposed carriers of a sickness that befell her crew. Sayid is skeptical of such "whispers," by this point attributing a large part of the story to dementia. Sayid's frustration in this scene stands in for our own. We, the viewing audience, are still deciphering this scene to this very day, and it's lost none of its power.

Sayid fixes Danielle's music box, and she breaks out into a grin we won't see again for a long, long time. Sayid quietly asks to be let go, but Danielle insists it's not safe for him to go. She leaves, after hearing something that sounds to Sayid's ears like the monster. "There is no such thing as monsters," says Danielle as she leaves. In her defense, she's never seen Heidi on The Hills, being stuck on the Island all this time.

Sayid managed to break free in her absence, steals various maps she's constructed over the years, relieves her of a shotgun, and heads off into the jungle. He engages in a little cat and mouse with her, eventually obtaining the upper hand. Danielle doesn't know how to say "upper hand" in English, however, and soon the two face off in a little John Woo-esque manner. Sayid fires, but the firing pin has been removed. Turns out Robert didn't notice this little trick before Danielle shot him. (Uh oh.) She says he was "sick," and that the sickness took them all one by one; and as such her killings, in her eyes, were those done out of mercy. She refuses to let Sayid go, citing the need for company after 16 years. Sayid replies, "I'll see you in the next life, if not this one."

That's the message in Arabic: turns out Nadia's not dead, necessarily, and the only thing that's kept Sayid going for the past seven years is the slight chance she might have survived that night in Iraq when he freed her from prison. He realizes that only with the help of those he just left can he ever get off the Island, and offers Rousseau a place among them. But she refuses, and warns Sayid to watch the Lostaways closely. He then learns that the "Alex" so often mentioned in this episode was her child. Note the gender-neutral wording there, y'all.

Hurrying back through the jungle, Sayid is stunned to hear something he thought he never would: whispers in the jungle. Creeped out? Ye should be.

In the B story, Hurley runs into Locke, and a new face for the viewing audience: a man named Ethan. Turns out the two of them have been hunting for rodent, and came across some luggage while out there. Walt, thinking his father is asleep, asks to tag along with Locke, but Michael shoots down the idea as Hurley finds something in the luggage that makes him go all Joey Lawrence and say, "Whoa."

In the cave, Walt's bored. Michael's drawing up plans for a shower system inside the caves. And Charlie announces that Hurley's all worked up about something. The something? A 2-hole golf course. Jack and Michael are initially skeptical, but soon enough, there's a foursome of wacky golf action happening! Sadly, no music from the movie "Caddyshack" plays during this sequence. Turns out that Hurley's instinct was correct: to merely survive was not enough. Those of us who spent their 20s and early 30s paying back student loans while working entry-level positions agree wholeheartedly.

Michael gets too caught up in the golf game to pay attention to Walt, who, as per usual, gravitates towards his new superhero, Locke. Walt wants to learn how to throw knives as well as the former box company employee. Locke finally agrees to mentor Walt in the ways of knife-throwing, and potentially, a lot, lot more.

15) Off the Island

Sayid's torturing a prisoner named Falah, back in Iraq. He accuses this man of planting a bomb inside a military headquarters, killing two soldiers in the process. Sayid says he already knows the truth, but only wants the man to admit it. Outside, he admits to his superior officer that he was bluffing, but the superior commends Sayid's work, offering a promotion into the Intelligence division. While receiving this promotion, Sayid sees someone out of the corner of his eye that he seems to recognize.

Sayid's assigned to interrogate Nadia, who instantly identifies herself as a childhood friend of his. It's unclear at first exactly who is interrogating whom. When Sayid tries to establish psychological control, she flatly states this is not her first time under such duress, showing the scars and wounds to prove it. She practically insists Sayid torture her.

It's a month later, and Sayid's bringing food, water, and a copy of US Weekly to Nadia in her chamber by this point. She's still not talking, at least not about potential suspects in the bombing incident that landed her in custody in the first place. She insists any acknowledgment will mark the end of their visits together, and I'm trying to figure out which one of them is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome at this point.

But Sayid's superior is having none of these picnic lunch meetings, and orders her execution. Sayid goes to a now pale, sallow Nadia (insanely good make-up work here), who knows something's slightly different about this visit when she sees the hooded mask plop beside her. But to her surprise, he's arranged transport to free her. She asks him to join her, but he knows they'll kill his family if he goes AWOL. Sayid's friend catches them in the act, but Sayid shoots him, them himself, in order to protect her. She then writes the Arabic message on the photograph we know so well on the Island, and leaves.

16) The Mythology

Good God, this is Mythology Central. How many major pieces were introduced tonight? The Others. The Sickness. The Whispers. Danielle and Ethan's first appearances. So, so many things, and Lord forbid I omit anything. Why do you think this recap was so long? My hands hurt.

23) The Moment

I guess it's kind of a cop out to say the whispers at the end. For me, seeing Ethan this time around really creeped me out, so I'm going with that.

42) In Retrospect

1. The subtle introduction of Ethan amazes. He's thrown in there with Rash Man, and you just think of him as another red shirt. Which is exactly the point.
2. I kept waiting for the Numbers to appear in this episode, forgetting they don't come in until well into Season 1. Hard to say if they were holding this factoid back, or if they hadn't actually come up with the idea for the Numbers just yet.
3. "You'll find me in the next life, if not this one." That line really stuck out after all the stuff with a certain fan of Mr. Charles Dickens, no?

108) In Summary

As mentioned before, I forgot just how excellent this episode is. Who knows, maybe episodes like "Fire + Ice Water" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" will be better upon second view? (Yea, probably not.) Most tantalizing? Most of the questions raised in this episode still haven't been authoritatively answered. Yes, we know the answers to a few, but not all, and as such, it's really fun to try and apply what we know now to this episode. In fact, there's a whole comment section below for you to do exactly that!

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

Comments

Yeah, unlike the last episode, which still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth (kind of like eating a red grape that you didn't realize was a little fuzzy on the bottom until after you'd already started chewing it), this one was beyond outstanding. True, there's torture here, too, but unlike the folks in the previous episode, the one doling out the pain is not exactly right in the head. At least we find out why later on, but when we first meet Danielle Rousseau, she just seems a crazy castaway who you wouldn't want to piss off, even a little-bitty bit. What I thought was a little bit of genius--and I'm presuming that this was done intentionally--was placing this episode immediately after "Confidence Man," because it made Sayid's actions a bit more palatable (or, to continue the earlier metaphor/simile, the grape didn't taste all that bad after all). At the hands of Rousseau, he got his punishment (and boy, was it a doozy...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzap!), so karma was restored.

As for Sayid's backstory, I was a little concerned (as was the actor playing him) that he was being typecast as the "Bad Ol' Arab" character, which would have made Lost a really sorry show, indeed. Instead, Sayid is a fully-realized addition to the dramatis personae, and this episode begins to show why. Just all around great story-telling.

As for the golf course? If anyone except Hurley (or maybe Charlie) had done it, the idea would have been stupid beyond belief. But Jorge was right--the Losties needed some serious leisure time. Also, it acted as great counterpoint to the trauma that Sayid was going through more-or-less at the same time.

My only problem with the episode, especially in regards to later episodes: with all the emphasis placed on the music box that Sayid fixes, and given how important it was to Danielle, why, to my knowledge, was it never shown or mentioned again? Danielle clutches to remnants of her past like a raccoon to a pretty-shiny, so whatever happened to it?

Finally, I only have one thing to say about the arrival of Ethan: *shudder*.

Dark Disciple | Jul 3, 2008 5:09:40 PM | #

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Ah, here's another voice over/quote for your GPS game from earlier in the week.

In Nadia's whispered voice, the GPS says:
"You'll find (your destination) in the next life, if not this one."

djc | Jul 3, 2008 5:49:27 PM | #

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"Fire + Ice"? Don't you mean "Fire + Water"? My memory doesn't quite go back that far, but that's what it says on iTunes...

This episode continues to make me question why Danielle was killed off for more than dramatic effect. I was so hoping that she would get a whole episode devoted to her and her backstory. That would have been incredible. Maybe we'll run into someone on her ship somehow, that would be EXCELLENT...

Lauren B | Jul 3, 2008 7:24:11 PM | #

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Drat. Yes. Fire&Ice is a restaurant here in Boston. Will change above.

Ryan | Jul 3, 2008 8:28:21 PM | #

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Whaaaaaaa? A red shirt with lines.

I've been saying it for months and I'll say it again, Danielle needs a flashback.

I too forgot how great of an episode this is. It shows that this show truly will stand the test of time.

They were very sneaky with the introduction of Ethan. You would never expect him to turn out the way he did by this first encounter. And it's interesting how simultaneously Sayid and the other Losties meet someone else on the Island.

So....much....foreshadowing.

Shaggysteve | Jul 3, 2008 8:37:31 PM | #

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What is to interesting to ponder on, that can only be thought of it the "re-watching" is whether the "sickness" that everyone had is really a sickness (the one that Desmond had) or is Danielle crazy. I think by placing the "whispers" in this episode, it makes Sayid wonder the same thing. At the end of Season 4, we still don't know how all the scientists died. I mean we know that Rousseau killed them, but was it REALLY a mercy killing, or was it just her deluded mind saying they were sick (and they actually weren't). We have already seen one man on the boat (can't remember his name) who actually died from "time sickness" (not the name of the disease, but thats all I can think to call it). This is one of the questions that I have that I hope will be answered by the time the series ends.

Debra | Jul 4, 2008 7:37:34 AM | #

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When Danielle leaving was mentioned before on this blog someone commented that the person who plays her had asked to leave just like the person who played Mr. Eko. I believe it was Jeff that told us.

kelster | Jul 4, 2008 9:29:37 AM | #

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I have long held the belief that Danielle was spared fom the "Sickness" because she was pregnant. I still am not sure if I believe the "sickness" was the time travel syndrome or something that was done to them by the "others". The "others" would have spared Danielle because they might have wanted her baby (which they got).
Sayid's back story was amazing. We really got a sense of why he was so distraught over what he did to Sawyer.I also really liked "Enter 77" for more of Sayid's heartwrenching story. (I still want to know what happened to the cat, Nadia).
Ethan creeped me out from this innocuous introduction until he was dead (and, yes, I cheered when Charlie shot his creepiness). I only felt a wee bit bad when I found out that he was their head surgeon but, then lost that sorry feeling when I learned that he kidnapped Claire on his own without the "others" instruction.
Hurley is absolutely the only one who could have carried out the whole golf course scene. Just like he was the only one who could have made use of the Dharma van not once but, twice.

Chris | Jul 4, 2008 9:40:19 AM | #

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Are we ever going to get Rousseau's back story and what happened? I mean, I know she's dead now, but surely we can't go these final two seasons without knowing what happened with her crew. This was also the first of many funny and inspirational Hurley moments.

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 10:09:28 AM | #

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kelster, that was me. Good memory!

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 11:30:05 AM | #

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By the way, the Jeff two posts up is another Jeff. He posts pretty infrequently. I post here every day. Hooray for confusion.

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 11:31:29 AM | #

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Now you know why I chose to post under this name instead of my given name, which is Aaron. Given the character, as well as another person with the same name who posts every once in awhile, that would get really nutty. Although I believe the other Aaron is more succinct than I am, and baby Aaron just says, "Goo," so maybe there wouldn't be confusion after all. :P

Dark Disciple | Jul 4, 2008 12:12:23 PM | #

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Yeah, I'm debating changing my handle. It'd be weird for me, though, since I've been posting here for about a year as Jeff.

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 12:22:29 PM | #

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and now we know why i go by "mri." and it's not the medical machine, nor my initials. technically, it's how to properly pronounce my name in redneck. :-)

mri | Jul 4, 2008 12:43:13 PM | #

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Jeff -- why don't you just add the first initial of your last name? Just a thought. And yes, I was wondering why there were three "Jeff" posts in a row!

DD -- how nice that your name is Aaron. You don't hear many people with that name!

Chris -- I didn't think of the fact that Danielle may not have gotten the "sickness" because she was pregnant, nor did I think of the fact that the "sickness" could be something that the others caused. That's why I like this show so much, is that there are so many different interpretations and possible answers to the same thing.

It was such a good idea to re-watch all these during the "hiatus". I am SO enjoying this!

Debra | Jul 4, 2008 1:07:56 PM | #

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I could change my name, but then, I post here every single day, so I don't see why I should have to.

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 1:41:54 PM | #

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Yeah, I hear ya about "mri" being the redneck way to pronounce your name. I used to live in Texas, and somehow my two syllable name got stretched into about five, with each vowel being multiplied by about four. You would not believe how badly my last name (all three syllables of it) gets shredded when I'm down south. Oy!

As for the name changing thing, I tend to come up with semi-memorable (mainly for myself, do ya ken--lord, been reading the Dark Tower series for too long now) screen names merely for my own amusement. I don't HAVE to do it, I just enjoy doing so. I rather like the name Aaron, as it's always been the first listing in just about any baby name book I've ever read, but I also like the screen name Dark Disciple. It sounds vaguely evil, and I'm okay with that. :P

Dark Disciple | Jul 4, 2008 1:53:26 PM | #

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I usually go by "theglasseye" everywhere else but here. Dunno why I always used my first name here.

Jeff | Jul 4, 2008 1:58:02 PM | #

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Maybe we should have a blog topic on the blog handles the characters of Lost might use. :) Of course Sawyer would be the origin of most of the names/handles, so maybe not....

I think it was Jeff (regular) who also pointed out that Alex would serve as Danielle's constant on island which might have prevented her from getting the "time sickness."

djc | Jul 5, 2008 12:44:21 AM | #

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I think most people use an online handle precisely for this reason. I don't know if maybe there's a Maya out there who is a fan of some crappy show and I don't want anyone to get confused.

I actually didn't like this episode all that much on the rewatch. I did hear Danielle's entire story with a more critical ear though. Now that we know the Others a bit better doesn't her story seem like it makes no sense at all? Why did they leave her all alone? Is she a bad person? It seems so needlessly cruel.

pocket | Jul 5, 2008 8:46:27 AM | #

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Ah Pocket, I believe the problem is that we don't know how much of Danielle's story is true. Is she crazy or isn't she? Is she alone because the Others left her, or did she chose to be alone? The only cruel thing that we pretty much know to be true is that Ben took Alex and called her his own. Did Danielle go crazy before or after that happened? I believe that we do not know the answers to these questions (unless I am wrong). The ironic thing is that it seems that Ben truly came to believe that Alex was indeed his, and was not "stolen". I always thought that they should have made more of that storyline.

Debra | Jul 5, 2008 5:22:45 PM | #

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It's sad that Mira Furlan couldn't hold on till the end of the season. She would have gotten her character-centric episode eventually.

I guess what's even sadder is how long the producers strung her and the fans along with promises of a Danielle flashback and kept pushing it back. Originally, it was supposed to happen in season 3. Then they said that it would happen in season 4, along with the revelation of Libby's backstory. That never happened either. I can see that when you're an incredibly talented actor that's revered internationally, it can get really frustrating being away from home for so long to be nothing but background filler.

I still have hope that she'll return as a guest star for 2 or 3 episodes (somehow) and reveal her past. I could see her communicating with maybe Claire or Locke from beyond the grave somehow.

I guess the most disappointing thing to me was the fact that the Rousseau character is among, I'd say, the top 5 central core mysteries of the show and they just killed her off like a redshirt.

Jeff | Jul 6, 2008 5:22:26 AM | #

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